Until now.

A great chunk of METROPOLIS--perhaps as much a quarter of more--has been forever lost, but this Kino Video DVD release offers the single best version of the film available. The previously cut footage that still exists has been restored; gaps in the film have been bridged by the occasional use of stills and explanatory title cards; the film itself has been painstakingly and digitally restored; and the soundtrack is the Gottfried Huppertz original created for the film's 1927 Berlin debut. In seeing this version of METROPOLIS, I was struck by how very differently it reads from the previously available truncated version. The visual style and the story itself are much more exciting and cohesive, and in the wake of this restoration it becomes impossible to deny the film status as landmark of international cinema.

Freder Fredersen (Gustav Frohlich) is the son of Joh Fredersen (Alfred Able), who reigns over the great city of Metropolis. Freder is surprised to discover his lifestyle has been built on the unseen but backbreaking labor of an entire class of unseen workers who tend the machines that make the city run--and he descends to the subterranean levels of Metropolis in an effort to understand their lives... and, not incidentally, to find the mysterious but beautiful woman Maria (Brigitta Helm) who has inspired his interest in the workers' plight. But his father is concerned by both Freder's interest and Maria's activities among the workers, and he turns to scientist C.A. Rotwang (Rudolf Klein-Rogge) for aid. Rotwang has created a robot, and he agrees to give it the likeness of Maria in order to undermine both Freder's love for the girl and her own activities. But Rotwang has a hidden agenda of his own: once the robot has been unleashed, he will use her to destroy Metropolis and thereby exact revenge on Joh Fredersen for past transgressions against him.

In many respects the story is simplistic, but the film's visual style and connotations are anything but. Deeply influenced by such art movements as Expressionism, Objectivism, Art Deco, and Bauhaus, the film is visually fascinating--not only in its scenic designs, but in director Lang's famous skill at creating the powerful crowd scenes that dominate the film and building the pace and tension of the film as it moves toward an intense climax. But while one can--and many do--admire the film purely at this level, there is quite a lot going on in terms of philosophical content as well: while it offers few viable solutions, the film raises such issues as the relationship between capital and labor, the place of religion in modern society, human reaction to overwhelming technology, and (perhaps most interestingly) the drift of government into a class-conscious corporate entity. And religious motifs abound in the film: a largely deserted cathedral; Moloch; the Tower of Babel; and crosses--intriguingly juxtaposed with a repeating motif of the pentagram-like designs associated with the robot. It is fascinating stuff.

There has been complaint that this restoration runs at incorrect speed and the performances are therefore unnecessarily jerky. I did not find this to be the case. In certain instances the movement is deliberately jerky and mechanical--the workers are a case in point--but beyond this there is nothing for which the difference between silent acting and modern acting techniques cannot account. There has also been some complaint that the title cards should have been left in their original German and translated via subtitle. There is a certain validity to this, but it seems a minor quibble; title cards were typically translated in the silent era itself. The DVD includes a number of extras, including still photographs, biographies of the major figures involved in the film, and two interesting documentaries-one on the restoration process and one on the creation of the film itself. Both are interesting; the audio commentary track by film historian Enno Patalas, however, is mildly disappointing. But when all is said and done, it is the film that counts. And this restoration is a remarkable achievement, to say the least, a project which brings a great landmark of world cinema back from the edge of the abyss. Indispensible; a must-own.

--GFT (Amazon Reviewer)--


Monumental movie but still *not* an original transfer.   April 6, 2003
 264 out of 342 found this review helpful

Let me start by saying that a movie of this stature can't be praised highly enough. Having said that I beg to differ with all the five star rave reviews concerning the DVD transfer. I'm quite the Metropolis fan and my toes curled when I saw that the newest and latest official release has its intertitles translated into English up to the point of actually changing the original images as well.(The address card Freder shows Josaphas, the Hel memorial plaque, the tower of Babel sequence, a business card picked up by Freder, etc, are all English translations inserted by digital or other means into the film.) So, claiming that this version is original is dubious to say the least. Why not benefit from DVD's technology to leave it up to the viewer to choose between the (original) German or English intertitles? If it can be done with subtitles, I'm sure intertitles can't pose a problem. Imagine the frustration of the German movie buffs who have to watch one of their greatest movies of all time with English intertitles and German subtitles! What really made me frown is that in the scene selection section on the DVD you can make out the original German intertitles in some of the preview windows! The frustrating part about this is that even when using DVD's technological advantages to choose between intertitles, changes made onto the print by substituting English text over the images are permanent.

Furthermore I challenge any film technician or any of the members on the restauration team of the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation to tell me that this version of Metropolis is transfered at the correct speed. And by that I mean the speed at which any normal human being walks, runs and can gesticulate without looking like an episode from Comedy Capers. Have a look at the final scene where Rotwang chases Maria up the Cathedral. It is actually comical and embarassing to see, taking into account the enormous effort the F.W.M. Foundation took in restoring this monument. Trust me, you don't have to be an animation student or an expert in locomotion to see that the actor's movements are sped up. Even the big clock's second hand in Frederson's office races by at exaggerated speed. When Joh Frederson stands opposite of Rotwang (Hal statue sequence), Rotwang waves his hands frenetically in Fredersen's face to gesticulate refusal. For a moment his hands elude me because of motional blur. Eureka's 1999 release of Metropolis had much better and natural movement of the actors. What very few people know is that Fritz Lang under-crancked the camera for some of the shots in his movie to add drama and weight to some scenes. These little moments of genius gave Metropolis some of its extraordinary atmosphere and appeal and are now completely lost with this release.

In 1927 the German production company UFA ordered the film to be cut for the US release. The American editor charged with this operation also exchanged the German intertitles and scenes with German texts for English substitutes. It's an irony that this release has been labeled "Restored Authorized Edition" for it perpetuates the act of defacing the original print as the editor did in 1927. The claim Kino makes this being a restored edition is at least misleading. Apart from footage that must be considered permanently lost, the claim holds no truth. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines "restore" as: "To put or bring back into a former or original state." Metropolis is a German movie. It used German text and titles. So let's get over the five star rave and try to be at least a little critical. I mean we're talking about one of the most influential and monumental movies of all time. Too bad its fantastic restauration is marred by such obvious flaws.

My first copy of Metropolis was Eureka's 1999 release which runs at 139 minutes on region 2 equipment. Although the image suffers from a very bad transfer and even more missing footage in comparison with this release, it is so much more the viewing experience you want and ultimately can't forget. Speeding up a film destroys the director's artistical vision together with the movies ambience and atmosphere. Needless to say I immediately returned my recently acquired Restored Authorized Edition for a refund.


this tinted version is NOT Moroder's version   February 15, 1999
 210 out of 227 found this review helpful

This is the 139 minute, tinted version, with the disjointed music, distributed by "JEF films" and labeled "Aikman Archive" in yellow on the box. The sound is bad and the video quality is poor. For superior video quality, get the version produced by Kino Video instead. although the Kino version has a bad sound track, at least the video quality is very good. For superior sound, get the Moroder version of Metropolis.

This review assumes that you have already seen Metropolis. For those unfamiliar with Metropolis, it is considered "the" first SciFi movie -- the robot, the cool visual effects of future cities, and a few mad scientist lab scenes. But it is only a great movie IF you see the right version. Sadly, there are more then 6 versions of the film floating around --

Black/white, bad music, slow playback

B/W, bad music, fast playback

tinted, bad music, slow playback

tinted, good music, fast playback

plus a few versions with terrible video quality (the DVD version is such a case) and other versions with missing scenes, a non-logical flow to the story line due to bad editing, etc.

Unfortunately, the situation with prints of Metropolis is a bit of a mess. Those looking for the tinted Girogio Moroder sound track should NOT get this tape.

Although the run time of this version of the movie is 139 minutes, it is actually missing scenes that are in the 90 minute Kino Video and Moroder versions of the tape. The reason is that this 139 minute tape is run at a SLOWER speed than the Kino tape is. Also, the music is totally out of sync and unrelated to the action.

Unfortunately, Moroder's copy is not available from anywhere. At $24.95, I'd hoped that the folks at Amazon.com had found a copy but this is not the case. Someone should find a good copy of the Moroder tape, sell that, and burn all of the other versions. Although some people object to Moroder's rock soundtrack, at least it follows the story line and is an excellent sound track on its own.

I was fortunate enough to have seen Moroder's copy the first time I saw Metropolis and I am very glad that I did.

To add further insult to injury, the CD of Moroder's soundtrack is not the same as the music that appearred in the movie. The CD has some additional songs and is missing some others. So you can't redub a video from the CD. So don't get the "Moroder CD" and expect to remix your own copy of the video.

OK, having provided all of the background info, there is the review:

139-minute B&W version published by JEF films. The cover says it is a "newly restored version", but image quality is so bad that I would rather call it "newly destroyed version". It has actually more missing scenes than both Kino's and Moroder's versions, but runs longer because of slower frame speed.


Lang deserves better than this.   January 8, 2001
 58 out of 60 found this review helpful

When I bought this DVD, I was actually expecting less-than-perfect picture quality. After all, $10 for a DVD is cheap. I reasoned it would at least have some version of the movie on it, and thus it's worth the money. But now, having watched it, I'm not convinced.

There are no issues with tinting/no tinting, new score/old score. Here it's just that the transfer is downright painful to watch -- grainy, scratchy, at times out of focus, at times so dark you can barely see the action. The gorgeous production design and innovative filmmaking is buried under layers of artifacts from a bad transfer. It looks like someone videotaped it off of a TV (using a camcorder through a dirty window), then watched the tape about twenty times, then put it on the DVD.

I know, the film's 80 years old, we can't expect a pristine presentation. But I know that better transfers exist, I've seen them on VHS. Not to mention the fact that The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu have beautiful Criterion DVDs -- why haven't they done Metropolis yet? Surely a film that influenced everyone from Ridley Scott to George Lucas deserves preferential treatment.

The sound is good, a full orchestra instead of just a piano, but that's about all this sad little disc has going for it. If you want to see Metropolis (and everyone should see it at least once), you're better of getting it on VHS for now.


Swooping Epic of a Film killed by an unsympathetic modernity   December 4, 1999
 41 out of 44 found this review helpful

Metropolis the movie and Metropolis the video are two entirely different entities. The former represents a genesis in science fiction film-making and should be respected universally as being the fruit of a team of visionary geniuses (principally in terms of art-direction). In 1926, this two hour-plus release was a swooshing epic of light, machinery and action, taking audiences who had been only used to watching films in the cinema with tinny piano accompaniment into the far future world of robotics, mass-transit, etc. The actors were good but they didn't have a chance of flourishing in the shadow of the sheer excellence of set design and production. This was the world of the year 2,000 (so far off back then that the comma means something in the writing of the figure). Lang's direction brought out a sci-fi exposition fused with parable fused with philosophy. Grandiose by the standards of any time, the film cost over 2 million USD (in 'then' money) and nearly bankrupted UFA, the backing company. That alone proves that this was a work of intense sacrifice and conviction: a mind-blowing excursion into the far-future (then a lifetime away) which, despite its explicit critique of both Marxism and Capitalism, revealed the likely development of a mammoth pleasure era to come. The spoilt offspring of the Commercialist dictator sights the beauty of the People's girl and is smitten to the point that he will try to change his side of the machine. At the same time, the girl becomes known to the dictator who, in turn, commissions Rotwang the inventor (analagous as being the amoral scientific community) to construct a mechanical replica of the girl to undo the damage and keep the rumblings low. The girl is abducted, duplicated and retained for the pleasure of the scientist. Her robotic alter-ego malfunctions and becomes a Lenin-Hitler, inciting the workers to rise up and destroy the metropolis of their enslaver......and their own. That is the meaning of 'Metropolis' the film. Sadly, not many people have been able to afford the same respect to 'Metropolis'. In terms of its versions on video, only 2 are worth seeing at this time. This tape and its brethren listed here are not amongst them. What you should search for is either the 1984 Giorgio Moroder film (85 mins including a hard rock soundtrack-score, tinting, visual additions and a brilliant general score which I recorded onto a 90-min audio tape it was so good) or the 1992 release by the British Eureka corporation (on PAL, sadly). The latter claims to have all 139 minutes and although I haven't yet bought it (after buying 3 'Metropolis' VHS tapes, I'm becoming a little weary of waste), I can see from the thickness of the reel that there really could be all 139 minutes on there. All others are a waste of money and should be avoided like the plague. This tape has an unsuitable soundtrack which kills the aesthetics of the film and the print itself lacks high resolution and is grained in areas. For the 1920's, an orchestral or piano soundtrack had to do but 'Metropolis' should not be classified as being a silent film per se. It is a generic 'Metropolis-film' and demands better academic appreciation. It is sad to see that the minds behind doing the re-releasing of 'Metropolis' just lack that respect. Either that, or......or perhaps it's a conspiracy to assassinate the film's image.